Communication systems today, such as Motorola's “iDEN” system, provide users with so-called dispatch services. Unlike the interconnect services provided by today's cellular systems, dispatch services have been traditionally provided by two-way radio systems. Such services allow a user to communicate in ways that are difficult or costly using today's cellular systems. The dispatch group call service, for example, enables a user to communicate with a group of people simultaneously and instantaneously, usually just by depressing a push-to-talk (PTT) button. Using a cellular system, such a call could not occur instantaneously since either telephone numbers would need to be dialed for a three-way call or arrangements would need to be made to setup a conference call.
Likewise, the dispatch individual call service enables a user to communicate with another user quickly and spontaneously. This feature is ideal for two people who are working together but are unable to speak with one another directly such as two people working in concert but in different parts of a building. Where a wireless telephone call is more appropriate for a conversation, short messages between two people as they work are better facilitated by the dispatch individual call service.
Occasionally however, two or more users already involved in dispatch communication need to include another user in their call. Private radio systems today allow a dispatcher, for example, to patch dispatch groups together. However, today's CDMA systems neither provide dispatch service nor a dispatch patch service that would enable a user involved in a dispatch call to patch another user into the existing call. The co-pending application “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING DISPATCH SERVICE IN A CDMA COMMUNICATION SYSTEM” discloses modifications to the IS-95 CDMA standard enabling CDMA dispatch service. However, this co-pending application does not disclose a CDMA embodiment that enables the dispatch patch service. Therefore, a need exists for an apparatus and method for providing a dispatch patch service in a CDMA communication system.